06
Jul
2012
Electronista: New quarterly data indicates little change in the US cellphone market, according to research firm ComScore. Android devices continue to dominate as a platform, up 0.8 percent to account for 50.9 percent of smartphones. Apple’s iPhone, meanwhile, has grown 1.7 percent to claim a 31.9 percent share. (more…)
07
Mar
2012
Electronista: Earbuds optimized to Microsoft Lync
Logitech has launched a new set of airbuds targeting business users. The BH320 USB Stereo Earbuds are designed primarily for voice and video chats, not music. The earbuds use a five-band parametric equalization technology to optimize both the audio and microphone to make it mirror normal speech. Echo cancellation also adds to voice clarity. (more…)
20
Jan
2012
The Guardian: Retailers and distributors show what they will offer in the year ahead at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. (more…)
14
Mar
2011
BBC Technology News: Microsoft has sold more than 10 million Kinect sensor systems since launch on 4 November and – according to Guinness World Records – is the fastest-selling consumer electronics device on record.
The sales figures outstrip those of both Apple’s iPhone and iPad when launched, Guinness said.
Kinect is an infrared camera add-on for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 games console that allows it to track body movements. Rory Cellan-Jones reports.
04
Feb
2011
GPS Business News: Market research firm Canalys today published its final fourth quarter 2010 global country-level smartphone market data, which revealed that Google’s Android has become the leading platform.
Shipments of Android-based smartphones reached 32.9 million, while devices running Nokia’s Symbian platform trailed slightly at 31.0 million worldwide. But Nokia did retain its position as the leading global smartphone vendor, with a share of 28%.
The fourth quarter also saw the worldwide smartphone market continue to soar, with shipments of 101.2 million units representing year-on-year growth of 89%. The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80% over 2009.
During the fourth quarter volumes of Google OS-based smartphones (Android, OMS and Tapas) were again boosted by strong performances from a number of vendors, notably LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC, whose volumes across these platforms grew 4,127%, 1,474%, 709% and 371% respectively year-on-year. HTC and Samsung together accounted for nearly 45% of Google OS-based handset shipments.
At a regional level, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) remained the largest market, with shipments totalling 38.8 million and a year-on-year growth rate of 90%. Nokia continued to lead in EMEA and Asia Pacific, but in 2010 it was overtaken by RIM in Latin America, which shipped over a million more units than Nokia in Q4 2010. The vendor was particularly helped by the popularity of its mid-range smartphones, such as its Curve family of devices.
The United States continued its reign as the largest country market in terms of shipments, at more than double the size of the Chinese smartphone market. RIM recaptured first place from Apple, as the latter experienced its usual US seasonal dip, and RIM benefited from the first full quarter of shipments for the BlackBerry Torch. HTC successfully maintained its third-place ranking in the US for the third consecutive quarter, driven by its speed to market with the latest Android updates and new Windows Phone 7 devices.
“The US landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,” said Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd. “Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.”
Android was by far the largest smart phone platform in the US market in the fourth quarter 2010, with shipments of 12.1 million units – nearly three times those of RIM’s BlackBerry devices. Windows Phone 7 devices appeared too late in the quarter to take full advantage of holiday season purchasing. As a result, Microsoft lost share in the United States, from 8% in Q4 2009 to 5% in Q4 2010.
South Korea, Japan and China
Analysis of the published country-level data shows that, around the world, the strength of smartphone performances remained diverse. In South Korea, for example, shipments grew from under 700,000 units in Q4 2009 to just under 3.4 million units in Q4 2010, making the country a top 10 market.
In Japan, Android shipments have taken off over the past year, with nearly 1.4 million units shipping from local as well as international vendors, such as HTC. More Japanese vendors have also announced plans to launch Android devices in 2011, such as NEC Casio and Panasonic.
Under pressure from Huawei and Samsung in particular, Nokia’s share in China slipped to 56%, down from 76% a year ago, despite growing its volume in the country by over 70% in the same period. Albeit from a smaller base, the Chinese market grew 134% year-on-year, notably faster than the US market, which grew at 64% in the quarter.
05
Jan
2010
BBC: If 2009 was dominated by touch technology then 2010 looks set to be the year of 3D.
3D has been one of the biggest hits of the cinemas this year and it is likely to continue its stride into other mediums during 2010, experts agree.
TV manufacturer LG wants to sell nearly half a million 3D-ready TV sets next year as the World Cup kicks off in the format.
Meanwhile laptops and games consoles are also getting a 3D makeover.
Acer has already released what it is claiming is the world’s first 3D-capable laptop, and most agree it will be the first of many.
One critic likened the screen of the Acer Inspire 5738DZG to that of a 1960′s cinema “but in laptop form”.
Others have dismissed the 3D capability as a gimmick, but most agree that it will be the start of a glut of similar machines.
Acer has created its 3D effect by putting a polarising filter over the screen which splits images into separate streams. When combined with a pair of polarising glasses (and the laptop comes with a free pair) it allows users to view content in 3D.
Some movie trailers come preloaded on the laptop, while software called TriDef 3D can add a third dimension to PC games, DVDs and video footage with varying degrees of success.
Microsoft is watching developments in the field with interest. Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft’s vice president of user experience believes the technology will play a major role over the next decade.
“A 3D spatial camera inside a computer will offer a new way to interact with content. It will allow people to spatially organise things with older things farther away,” she said.
28
Jul
2009
Guardian: Microsoft shocked investors yesterday by announcing another plunge in revenues and profits, sending the group’s shares tumbling and leaving some analysts questioning the technology giant’s prospects.
In its latest quarterly financial results, the world’s biggest software company announced revenues of $13.1bn, down from almost $16bn over the same period last year.
Profits for the last three months fell 29% to $3.05bn, down from $4.3bn for the fourth quarter of 2008.
While some of the drop could be attributed to customers waiting for the arrival of Windows 7 – due to go on sale this autumn – the company has also been struck by the tightening of the economy and a general slowdown in PC sales.
Until the previous quarter, the company had never experienced negative growth since going public 23 years ago.
The company’s chief financial officer, Chris Liddell, said: “Our business continued to be negatively impact by weakness in the global PC and server markets. In light of that environment, it was an excellent achievement to deliver over $750m of operational savings.”
Microsoft said it had made the savings through streamlining operations and cutting thousands of jobs, but admitted that it had spent large amounts on legal costs and redundancy packages.
Legal charges totalled $193m, while the company also counted $108m in impairments and $40m in additional severance charges.
The results were lower than Wall Street analysts expected, with consensus guidance hovering at around revenues of $14.3bn – and shares dropped more than 7% in after-hours trading as a result.
“It’s a real disappointment … a significant miss,” said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities.
Not everyone was depressed by the company’s prospects, however. Katherine Egbert of Jefferies & Co said that although results were “tepid” there were “some green shoots”.
Among those prospects is Windows 7, the latest version of the company’s operating system. With PC sales underperforming, Microsoft is desperate for software to be a hit – particularly since the 2007 launch of its predecessor, Windows Vista, proved so difficult.
That much-heralded product launch suffered problems, after customers discovered that many pieces of hardware would not work.
05
Jun
2009
Wired: A camera controller for the Xbox 360 promises 3D motion recognition that will turn your entire body into a game controller.
Code-named Project Natal, the planned controller will sit beneath your television set and be able to translate every movement of your body into a game control, Microsoft said yesterday as it unveiled the system during its press briefing at the E3 games fair.
Natal will let gamers browse the Xbox 360 menus and watch movies, and could help make interactive entertainment as “approachable” as other forms of entertainment, according to
Steven Spielberg, who took the stage during Microsoft’s presentation to praise Project Natal. “It’s not about reinventing the wheel,” Spielberg said. “It’s about no wheel at all.”
It’s an interesting and unexpected move by Microsoft, which already has captured hardcore gamers with its consoles and is now looking to attract a wider audience by cranking out casual games and turning the Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live digital media deliver service into an entertainment hub.
While rumours of a motion controller similar to the Wii’s have been doing the rounds, Microsoft said it is simply moving beyond the need for any handheld controller. The company also says Project Natal can pull off facial recognition, making the controller capable of determining who is playing a given game.
Top designers like Fable II’s Peter Molyneux are currently working on software to use with the hardware, although Microsoft did not say when the controller will be released.
25
May
2009
Reuters: Nokia on Monday began rolling out its much-anticipated online software and content store, Ovi Store, as it aims to follow the success of Apple’s App Store.Nokia said it had started moving Ovi Store to production servers, preparing for the global commercial launch, and the store was opened to users of a few of its phone models in Australia and Singapore on Monday.
Nokia has promised to open the store globally this week.
To cope with slowing phone demand Nokia is building a new business from mobile Internet services — like games or maps — but is scaling back separate investment plans due to the slowdown, and focusing on merging the delivery of services.
Nokia, which made its first ever quarterly pretax loss in January-March, is cutting annual costs at its key handset unit alone by more than 700 million euros ($979.7 million) to counter plunging demand.
The Apple App Store has proved extremely popular, with one billion applications downloaded in less than a year, and operators and technology firms including Vodafone Nokia, and Microsoft now want a piece of the pie.
07
May
2009
TGDaily: Software giant Microsoft laid off 3,000 people on Tuesday – part of its plan to cut costs.
The job losses will be spread equally between the USA and other geographies, but Microsoft has also committed to re-hiring as soon as the economic meltdown eases.
The Seattle Times has reproduced an email that CEO Steve Ballmer sent to all staff. In it, he describes the layoffs as difficult news to share. Microsoft, he continued, has nearly finished with the layoffs.
Ballmer did not rule out further layoffs – he said Microsoft is closely monitoring the economic downturn and is prepared to take action including layoffs if things continue to be bad.
The meltdown has affected practically every tech company and it’s probably fair to say that no-one has a clue when it will end.
31
Mar
2009
Electronista: Microsoft and TomTom today said they have reached a settlement regarding their patent dispute that will put an end to their mutual lawsuits over GPS technology.
The agreement sees TomTom get “coverage” from Microsoft for 3 patents that reportedly still meet TomTom’s requirements for its GPL v2 license. In exchange, TomTom must remove the features related to two FAT file system patents within the next two years.
The deal also involves a financial arrangement whose terms haven’t been mentioned, though Microsoft emphasizes that it doesn’t have to pay TomTom.
The agreement lasts for the next 5 years and covers past products. TomTom’s concession comes as a partial surprise, as the company had just last week secured a Linux license that would theoretically have given the company access to patents it could use to defend its own uses of Linux, including three Microsoft patents that allegedly touched on the use of the operating system.
Critics have charged that Microsoft has lately used patent cross-licensing through Novell and others to wield influence over other companies using Linux. The GPL v3 license was developed in part to prevent firms from entering into these deals and thus to shut out Microsoft from controlling genuinely open-source companies.
20
Mar
2009
Engadget: It’s official, kids: Responding to numerous reports in the media as of late, Microsoft would like to squash the rumor that Second Light is the next generation Surface.
The blog entry doesn’t shed too much light on SL, other than stating that it’s an “awesome” research project, one that “showcases the possibilities of the surface computing platform.”
Surface is due to come out sometime in 2011 (unless, of course, you buy the yacht – in which case you need only wait until this June). If you just can’t get enough of Second Light, we’ve stashed a video for you: